Lakeland city manager receives an overall grade of 4, but gets commission support.

Published: Monday, December 2, 2013 at 11:56 p.m.

Last Modified: Monday, December 2, 2013 at 11:56 p.m.

LAKELAND | City Manager Doug Thomas dropped a few notches in his annual performance review after a scandal-plagued year at the Lakeland Police Department.

City commissioners gave Thomas "meets expectations" ranking, with an overall grade of 4, compared with a 4.4 in 2012.

After the review, commissioners voted 7-0 to support Thomas, with City Commissioner Howard Wiggs changing his often-repeated call for Thomas to resign. During Monday's commission meeting, Wiggs said he will now support the city manager.

Wiggs, who takes over as mayor in January, said he can support Thomas if he moves forward with an anonymous survey of employees at LPD and City Hall and if Thomas isn't opposed to being evaluated by several levels of top and lower management, in addition to his annual review from commissioners.

That vote came after a request by City Commissioner Don Selvage. He said commissioners needed to take a vote on whether to support Thomas and Police Chief Lisa Womack before a new city commissioner takes office in January and Wiggs takes over as mayor.

Commissioner Edie Yates made a motion to support Thomas and Womack following Selvage's comments. Yates pulled the motion on whether to support Womack after City Attorney Tim McCausland said the city's charter states that only the city manager can make a decision on firing the police chief.

Commissioners can state their opinions to Thomas about Womack, McCausland said, but they cannot cast a vote on whether Thomas should fire Womack.

Both Wiggs and Selvage have previously said they think Womack should be fired.

Before the vote, commissioners discussed Thomas' and McCausland's annual reviews.

The grades were based on a scale of 1 to 5, with a 5 being the highest and indicating an employee exceeded expectations. The grades were based on a 2013 performance evaluation covering nine work-related skills.

THOMAS REVIEW

Thomas scored lower in six areas than last year. He scored lowest in communications and intergovernmental relations, with 3.5 scores in each of those categories.

Commissioner Justin Troller ranked Thomas the lowest, with an overall score of 3. Yates ranked Thomas the highest with a 4.6.

Some commissioners said they gave Thomas lower marks because of how he handled problems at the police department.

"I marked you in five of nine categories below what I've done in the past," Selvage said. "My marks reflect our disagreement on how we should have been led through this crisis.

"But I still support you as city manager."

Selvage gave Thomas an overall score of 3.7.

Though it was Thomas' yearly review, Commissioners Phillip Walker and Yates said they focused on what Thomas has accomplished in his overall career.

"I focus on the financial side and how healthy we are," Yates said. "I don't get as distracted at some of the kerfuffle the last few months."

Yates said Thomas' accomplishments far outweigh the issues he's dealt with this year. She acknowledged it was a difficult year but said Thomas' fiscal knowledge and leadership have helped the city.

"We had some things go wrong and had some serious violations of public trust by employees," Yates said. "They've been dealt with, and now it's time to turn the page and go forward."

Larry Ross, a Florida Southern College professor who oversaw the performance reviews, said there was a significant increase, 21 from five, in the number of suggestions for Thomas to do things differently.

Ross said the situation at LPD created a "negative halo effect" that led to reduced marks for Thomas.

Some of the anonymous comments from the review included:

"Doug and his team have done a masterful job in a very challenging economic environment," a commissioner said about Thomas in the category of fiscal management.

"During the LPD situation, it may not have been spoken, but it was never evident that mistakes had been made, that he was responsible, and that it would be remedied," a commissioner said under the category of communication.

It was Thomas' 10th review.

MCCAUSLAND REVIEW

McCausland's overall score also dropped from a 4.4 to a 4.

Wiggs criticized McCausland over the way he advised commissioners to support paying legal fees for employees involved in the grand jury presentment. The city of Lakeland has paid more than $220,000 to outside law firms for the cost of representing city officials during the grand jury's investigation. Much of that was to keep the presentment sealed.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled Wednesday that the investigative report into the Lakeland Police Department should be unsealed and released to the public. Parties do have until late next week to appeal that decision.

"I didn't feel like we got good advice on paying for the presentment legal fees," Wiggs said. "I was looking you to guide me more along the way, and I didn't get that."

McCausland said it was a fair criticism and acknowledged the $220,000 was an "outrageous number."

But he said the lawyers used for the case were "pretty seasoned practitioners" whose rates were customary for the type of defense that was needed.

"What I would offer is that for the last eight to 10 months, your city manager and city attorney have been dealing with daily brush fires in real time," McCausland said. "I'm not quite sure everyone appreciated that the individuals involved in the presentment were protecting their interests."

Troller gave McCausland his lowest score, a 2.9. Commissioner Phillip Walker gave McCausland a 4.7, his highest score. McCausland's best ranking was a 4.5 in interaction with the city manager. His lowest score, a 3.7, was in problem solving and decision making.

In the anonymous comments, McCausland was criticized for attempting to change his pension plan earlier this year.

"Poor decision making on the pension issue — needed to appear less self-serving," a commissioner wrote.

McCausland was lauded for his relationship with the commissioners. "Tim gets back to me in a timely fashion, provides good information, and he is always available at meetings and in between," a commissioner wrote.

[ John Chambliss can be reached at 863-802-7588 and john.chambliss@theledger.com. ]

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